1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to the development of network distributable markup and more particularly to the contextual assembly of markup artifacts in a network distributable page.
2. Description of the Related Art
Prior to the popularization of the Internet and the subsequent implementation of the World Wide Web (“the Web”), software publishers typically distributed computer applications and application content via storage media such as a computer diskette or compact disc. Recently, given the popularization of global computer communications networks, such as the Internet, and overlying content distribution protocols such as embodied by the Web, computer applications and application content are distributed sets of documents and document fragments which can be rendered within hypermedia content browsers such as Web browsers.
In the case of Web distributed content, users can interact with the content not through a traditional graphical user interface (“GUI”), but through a GUI provided by GUI elements embedded in markup rendered in a content browser. Content browsers process display attributes embedded in markup to properly format content also contained within the markup. Notable variants of the content browser include the venerable Web browser, as well as the more recent extensible markup language (XML) browser. Regardless of the type of browser, all conventional markup processors are preconfigured to parse and interpret attribute tags embedded in markup.
Web pages have evolved in content from simply arranged documents to interactive Web-based applications involving both client-side and server-side logic. As information and applications have proliferated about wide-spanning networks, portals have emerged to help consolidate information and applications and to provide a consistent user interface for the enterprise. Now “workplaces” seem to be the next evolutionary step content and applications distribution, adding a new level of intra-domain collaboration and personalization, and enabling all users to become creators and managers of network distributable content applications.
The evolution of network distributable content production tools has tracked the corresponding advancement of content distribution technologies. Initially limited to static content templates, production tools now resemble advanced integrated development environments which are more familiar to developers of conventional, stand-alone applications. Specifically, modern content production tools utilize a combination of embedded content browser technologies including confined componentry as well as script-driven technology integrated directly within markup. Recently content browsers have enriched scripting to provide a closer level of desktop-like interaction, including the ability to drag content through the movement and transparency of Web artifacts within a page. The availability of these new scripting features gives Web applications the opportunity to provide a new level of seamless interaction with end users while maintaining the intrinsic relationship with page content, not easily achieved with the other technologies.